California Will Block Moves for a “Muslim Registry”’ Across the State

​

California lives up to its name and status of being a so-called “sanctuary state” as it will prevent a Muslim registry from being implemented in the state.

​

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a much-watched bill on Sunday that will effectively prevent the creation of Muslim registry should President Donald Trump opt to go ahead with such a proposal he campaigned hard for in 2016.

​

The Senate Bill 31 sponsored by state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) blocks state and local governments in California from releasing personal information to the federal government for the creation of any religious list, registry or database. It also blocks them from utilizing resources to create their own lists.

​

It is also named as the California Religious Freedom Act, and the bill had an easy time as it breezes through the legislative process this year.

​

Reza Nekumanesh, executive director of the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno said that fear of such a Muslim registry is real for Muslim communities. He recalled that a year ago that Trump surrogates supposedly referenced Japanese internment camps from World War II as “precedent “for a Muslim registry.

​

Nekumanesh said: “Every time we have thought about registering people based on ethnicity, based on religion, no good has come out of it.”

​

Lara also cited an NBC interview with then presidential candidate Donald Trump as “basis” for authoring the said bill. Lara quoted that Trump then said that there “should be a lot of systems” beyond a database, that could track Muslims in the country. Supporters of the SB 31 said that a good evidence that Trump could fulfill his promise is the creation of travel bans from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

​

Despite a Muslim registry being mentioned during his campaign, so far neither Trump nor his administration officials have spoken recently about any concrete plans for so-called Muslim registry.